Palm Pre - First Impressions (Grievances First)
Monday, 8 June 2009
Me and Palm Pre
I’ve had the Palm Pre in my hands for a couple days now. It feels solid but not super heavy or overly dense. The slide-out keyboard has a very nice swing to it, like it was almost spring loaded, and clicks into place very nicely.
Grievances First
I’m going to list off my initial problems with the Palm Pre. Don’t forget though that this is coming from a person who previously spent the last 4 years stretching out my pockets using the ginormous Palm Treo 700p, so adjusting for me will be different than many others.
No LED Indicator : On the Palm 700p, there is a green/red (depending on what the phone is trying to tell you) LED indicator making you aware of a missed call, a voicemail message, a new text message, if the phone is low on batteries, whether it’s fully charged, or just charging. All of these things are a mystery to a Palm Pre owner unless they turn the phone on, and this is slightly annoying. Also strange and annoying is that when the battery life on the Palm Pre is sinking below 20%, the phone will alert you by vibrating, which is a massive waste of valuable/decreasing juice. My suggestion would be to allow one of the lights in the Palm Pre’s Gesture Area to blink ever so slightly to indicate new messages and missed phone calls.
Bad Email App For High Volume : By high volume I don’t necessarily mean high volume of spam. If you are unfortunate enough to have this problem, the Palm Pre is actually quite favorable in this regard due to the general ease of deleting a message (which is a simple finger swipe of the email off-screen to the right). If however you’re like me and you receive a high volume of emails you want to open just to look at quickly and toss (like if you work for an online retailer and you get an email for every sale), then this system is strenuous. Hopefully someone will create a more streamlined app for online retailers sales confirmations emails. I’d pay $20 if it were that good.
Hint about Microsoft Exchange Syncing: When syncing your Microsoft Exchange Server Contacts and Email Account to your Palm Pre, it is a little tricky and probably will be until they publish a fix. Be sure to sync your contacts first, then your email account. If you do the opposite, your Pre won’t let you sync contacts because it thinks it already has an account with the same email designation. Syncing contacts first and then email also allows the Palm Pre to sync calendar appointments automatically.
back to grievances…
No Video Recorder (aka Camcorder): My Palm Treo 700p which I’m pretty sure I bought back when people still liked Jack Johnson had a camcorder, so why not the Pre? Could it have to do with trying to economize on size?
Confusing Hinged Charge/Sync Port Cover Latch Thingy: My first struggle with the phone was to get that little plastic tab that covers the charge and sync port to come off far enough to plug in the cable. i’m guessing there’s going to be someone out there (who looks at the “Getting Started” pamphlet which shows that plastic tab lifting straight off and out away from the phone while connected to the phone with a sliding thin piece of plastic) and breaks the plastic lid right off. The pamphlet’s picture is not how my Pre’s charge port hinged cover is designed. My Pre’s plastic port cover twists. So if your Pre is like mine, don’t force that latch up. Simply pull it out and twist it back. I’m probably going to eventually get the touchstone mainly because of this poor and fragile design.
Not Super Snappy in General : A lot of the functions on the phone are not what I would call super snappy. In other words, the iPhone might beat the Palm Pre in an App snappiness contest. Even with the new release today of the iPhone 3Gs, it still doesn’t support multi tasking for apps, which I suspect we can blame for the Palm Pre’s non crispiness. By no means would I describe my Palm Pre as being slow.
Those are the only grievances so far that I can think of. I wanted to put out grievances first so as not to appear like a total fan boy, thus losing the trust of my readers. I must say now that I am extremely satisfied with the device so far, and you will see my positive reviews coming out shortly.
No. 1 — June 8th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I feel as though I should sign my name to your post! I too have the same Treo and having a hard time adjusting to the Pre. I find the phone very slick, which is making it difficult to open. When I squeeze it alittle tigher to slide open, I then scroll pages up. Having sync issues and wondering if someone can figure out how to get it to sync the calender faster. In Business, minutes count. No sure if it’s a keeper. The sales people don’t even know how to operate to full capacity.
No. 2 — June 9th, 2009 at 1:03 am
i agree with you on all points. i have a palm treo 700 also and got used to seeing the green light or red light off when there is a missed call/text. also i think that the pre needs some kind of rubber backing or leather backing like the bold to ease the opening of the device. by no means do i think the phone suks, but i was hoping to see a better palm treo with the same skills if not better than it.
No. 3 — June 9th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I have some grievances too. In the calendar: too few colors available, month view has no colors & the alarm settings are too limited. In the contacts: no groups setting available and most of the data that I had stored in the notes section transferred over as gibberish. Speed dial is limited and dumb. You have to press a letter and hold it down for a really long time, you have to remember what letter you assigned each person, give me back the sorted lists like on the treos. Hardware: needs a toggle for scrolling and moving the cursor around. Emails should have an alert sound option, in case your waiting for one or are receiving alarm alerts from the calendar. I really thought that they would keep what made palm great and just add the new stuff. I didn’t realize I was giving up what made palm a really great organizer.
I’m hoping for some mighty updates really soon.
No. 4 — June 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
@Terri - A big “here here” about needing a toggle to move the cursor back and forth when typing text. as it is now you have to push the exact place on the touchscreen where you want the cursor to go which is hard unless you’re a really skinny smurf. i’d like to see new gestures come out for the gesture area for this function, it looks like there are already multiple functions written into the firmware (the lights on the gesture area seem to think so anyway), they perhaps just need to update the software.
No. 5 — June 9th, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Well I think I’ve decided to day to stay with Treo, always a great phone but definately less issues than the pre. Not to be to girlie, but most girls have nails and try to get the screen to shrink is difficult. My fingers don’t twist that way. Does anyone know how to refresh the calender to sync faster? Always layering appts, not fast enough.
No. 6 — June 10th, 2009 at 11:27 am
@Pamela - I have long nails too- I solved the expanding and shrinking of the screen problem by using my index and middle fingers instead of trying to use my thumb. Works easily and well - and btw- nails are a big plus in using the qwerty keyboard - never a missed letter!
No. 7 — June 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
@ Pamela - sorry - forgot to answer part two - to sync calendar faster hit the drop down menu and scroll down to the large SYNC NOW button at bottom of scroll.
No. 8 — June 12th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I got the Pre 2 days ago, 1 for me and 1 for my wife. I am now suicidal, her phone froze and wouldn’t reset and she was trying to transfer info for 8 hours yesterday and the battery lasts about 3-4 hours. My Pre reset on it’s own last night and I lost all my info. The phone gets very hot when you talk and the battery is horrible, mine lasted 4.75 hours I only made 10 calls and went on web 4 times. We both are going back to our Tre and Centro, this phone is terrible and the support sucks bad, very disapointed for a long waited product.
No. 9 — June 13th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Damn. and i have been waiting a long time for this phone to come to Bell.
I guess i will stick to Blackberry after reading this.
Thanks
No. 10 — June 16th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
uhmmm yeah okay had my phone for a week n 2 days my phone wont charge n the apps suck ans the screen flickers on and off so please everyone stick with the blackberries
No. 11 — June 16th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Try getting email from multiple exchange servers or run 5 apps at once on the Blackberry. Better yet, good luck if you want a touch screen with the Storm….
No. 12 — June 18th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I have 8 email accounts on my Berry and it works great, nothing really beats blackberry for emails. Like i said…i did want this phone for all its cool features but too many bad reviews.The new Blackberry Tour 9630 is coming to Bell soon and that is what im getting.I also have a Palm 700p , Palms are great devices, im no way bashing Palm, im just dissapointed to read all the problems people have with the Pre, then again im sure they will come out with os upgrades and fix all the little bugs.As for the storm i do agree with Duker, the touch screen on that thing is terrible that is why i will wait for the Tour 9630 to be released.I also think that after a few OS upgrades, the Pre will be amazing.
No. 13 — June 19th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
This phone has been a grave disappointment. I owned a 755p before this. The calendar on my 755p was faster (not slow and too big for the screen like the Pre) and tremendously easier to use on almost every level. Seriously, on the Pre, just moving from one day to the next sometimes takes 15 seconds. The phone’s processing is slow….slow…SLOW! There are times when I go to open up and app, or email, or some new screen and it tells me there is not enough memory and I have to close other cards—-this happens when there are NO OTHER CARDS OPEN. The Apps SUCK! There aren’t many of them and the ones that are there are lame. Forget the “Classic” app….it is all but useless. And the rest of them…a few VERY lame games and no useful tools. Synching with my office calendar used to be so simple with my Treo, now, it is confusing at best and I end up with 7 to 8 duplicates of contacts and appointments. No video recording like my Treo used to have. No viewing video on most websites (i.e. if you go to YouTube directly you cannot view videos on the site… and the youtube app that come with it is not the full youtube library). I could go on, but it depresses me. Basically, I was so hyped up to get this phone just because, in general, I hate iPhone and iPhone users (obnoxious “aw, look what I have” jagweeds). I wanted this to be a true contender to iPhone. The ONLY thing that it does do better (I have an iTouch) is the multi-tasking, which is way cool). Other than that, if you were thinking about getting one, I would wait to see if they fiox all this crap. Otherwise, just forget it.
No. 14 — June 22nd, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I was so excited to get this phone after a few years of using the Treo700, mostly problem free. I ma now considering returning it and continuing on with my existing Treo or switching to a Pro. My biggest complaint is being limited sync capability. I needed it to sync with outlook both ways. I was able to do that with PocketMirror, but only by wifi. If I don’t have a signal I can’t sync. Second complaint is not being able to get all of my contact info over. I have close to 2000 contacts and a large number of them have assistants whose names did not come over, though it looks like the emails and phone numbers did. Finally, as mentioned before, the ability to toggle the cursor. I would even be happy if you had to puch one of the shift buttons and use the backspace key. My fingers are too big for the delicate aiming. Oh yeah, I have the random restarts as well. I do love the phone and want to keep it if it seems like they will do some tweaking in the near future. Does anyone have Pro experience?
No. 15 — July 5th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I got my Pre and was adjusting to it nicely from my Centro until I discovered that there is no docs to go application (only a reader) and then I was walking through the grocery store and dropped it on the floor (in the case it comes with) and the corner cracked and a bit snapped off! There are several things that I like about this phone like being able to actually get to full web pages rather than being diverted to the mobile sites but I need to process word docs and the shell is too fragile.
No. 16 — July 5th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I could not wait to get my hands on the Pre. I have used several Palm products in the past from the Zire 31 up to the Palm Centro.
The Pre has some nice features such as the ease of internet use, but for sync and productivity uses, I would not recommend this phone. As far as battery life, I can’t tell much difference between Pre and Centro. I hope in the future that there will be more “usable” apps for sync purposes, Or I may also go back to the Centro. I will say kudo’s for the camera and the slide out keyboard.
No. 17 — July 26th, 2009 at 2:55 am
HI,
read the manual
the scroll button is RED
the cut/copy is the ARROW
No. 18 — August 3rd, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I too was very excited about the Palm Pre coming out, but what a disappointment. I have had so many issues and have had to call tech support several times. The latest problem I am having is that my emails come into my inbox and after a couple of minutes they delete themselves without me touching anything. So if I am not looking at my screen right when it comes in then I am screwed. I also have emails in my trash that simply will not delete. I can’t get rid of them. I called the tech support and they are telling me they need to send me a new phone because it is a software issue, but they are back ordered so they can’t tell me when I will receive it. Also, It won’t actually be a new phone. It is someone else’s broken phone that they fix and then send to me. The Sprint rep told me the only people who get a NEW replacement is if it is less than 30 days old. You have to sign up for two years with Sprint with the Palm Pre so I am basically stuck. The customer service stinks and the Palm Pre is not worth the trouble. I basically spent hundreds of dollars and can not get email properly.
No. 19 — August 26th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I’m ready to return this and get a different phone. I have no hope any of my main issues will be fixed as people have been complaining about them since the phone launched. No missed call/text notification is a MAJOR problem. I can’t take my phone out it’s holster and fiddle with the screen every five minutes to see if I missed a call. I work in a plant. My old phone’s LED light was bright enough for me to notice while it was in my pocket. Because I work in a plant I don’t always hear the phone ring or feel it virbrate…but I will see the light. I need to know if my boss is trying to get a hold of me.
Another thing that bugs me is that I can’t answer the phone without fiddling with the screen. Everything is so dependent on that damned screen, it might as well as have been a touch-screen-only phone.
And the volume controls…why is the alarm volume control NOT independent of the system sounds controls?
I wonder if the developers actually tested this phone with consumers before it was released or did they take a page from the cosmetics indsutry and use chimps?
I’d fire them all and make them read all of Don Norman’s books…mainly “The Design of Everyday Things”…before working in development ever again.
/rant
No. 20 — September 16th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Howdy,
Just reading through all the bad reviews and wanted to add my two cents… This is the best phone I’ve ever owned. I prefer it to the iPhone, the Blackberry, and the other Palm phones.
I think the main thing to remember is that this phone wasn’t designed for hard-core business users; it was designed to give the iPhone a run for its money.
I sync four accounts, including one from an Exchange server, and I’ve had no issues at all. The web browser is excellent, and we’re getting more apps all the time.
My phone does get hot if I have it under my pillow at night when I sleep, but it has never failed on me. The battery life isn’t great, but if I turn wifi off, set the email syncing to daily (I still synch it manually all the time so no real issue there) and don’t go crazy using internet based apps, then it’s really fine. Listening to one of the online radio apps or watching video will certainly kill the battery pretty quick.
I can also launch and edit spreadsheets using Google Docs, but I can’t edit word documents in Google Docs (it only lets me view them).
I get about a hundred emails a day, and can easily skim through them on the Pre. Also while covering this years BlizzCon my laptop went out on me, but I was able to load the company’s article submission page with the Pre browser. I actually wrote six full articles with video and images using my Pre and was able to send them to my editor all online. My other phones weren’t able to handle the java that our article submission page requires.
Also with Flash coming to the Pre (eventually) we should be able to load virtually any web page. And don’t get me started on developing for the Pre; if you can code html, css or java, then you can develop a simple app for the Pre.
Overall I’m very happy with the phone, even with its drawbacks.
No. 21 — September 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am
[...] but with the solidity of design of past Palm winners (Treos, Centro). I’ve had my own Palm Pre Complaints, even to the point of my having to return my Palm Pre to the Sprint Store. The vast majority of [...]